Tag Archives: Modern Quilt Guild

Since the February Modern Quilt Guild Pattern of the Month was released yesterday (P.S. It’s by Debbie Grifka of Esch House Quilts & she’s awesome!), I’m going to start selling my Broken Bars quilt pattern to regular folk outside of the guild. It’s available on Pattern Spot by C&T Publishing and the Craftsy pattern marketplace, but I just made my account on Craftsy, so it might not show up for a day or so. I thought it would be good to offer it at a couple of different places, in case y’all already had an account with one or the other…. Anyways, happy hump day! -r

The Modern Quilt Guild has asked bloggers who are going to QuiltCon to write a post with five things that most people don’t know about you. So, without further ado…
One- I’m left handed! I definitely believe that it’s colored the way I see things & makes me march to my own beat. Certain tools are such a pain the the butt to use- don’t get me started on right handed mafia that apparently manufacturers most brands of scissors….
Two- My favorite food is anything made from potatoes. Anything… Just writing this has made me wish for French fries. Here’s a pic of my plate on Super Bowl Sunday:

I ignored half my riblets & did work on those pan fried fingerling potatoes…
Three- I danced ballet for almost nine years & was quite passionate about it. My schools were the serious kind where girls went to prep for the big leagues- we couldn’t wear skirts or cute wrap around sweaters to practice, we couldn’t wear jewelry or have bangs (!), & wearing your costume or even your makeup out of the theater after a performance was a mortal sin… Once, I missed a dress rehearsal by accident & while I was digging into my second helping of mashed potatoes, the kitchen phone rang. It was the artistic director of Ballet Oklahoma, Bryan Pitts, calling to tell us that my ass better be at the Civic Center in 15 minutes or else. Well, my aunt raced me across town & I was met at the backstage door by two assistants who stripped me naked & into costume within 60 seconds! Hello, Vicar! Haha But then puberty hit me with a bang & I realized there’s no room in the world of ballet for 5’8″ tall girls with big boobs! So, that dream sadly ended. But the structure & discipline of the ballet world has stuck with me. I step lightly even now…
Four- The first concert I ever went to was on the lawn of the Oklahoma City Community College & Three Dog Night performed. I think I was about seven or eight & my moms & stepdad took me. To this day, I can sing all their songs. & I’m pretty sure I was eaten alive by chiggers that day.
Five- I miss my big family. I grew up in my grandparents’ home & we always had a TON of people over. Aunts. Uncles. Cousins. Second Cousins. I HATED IT! I would lock myself in the bathroom just to read my books. Literally, there would be people in every corner & they all wanted to be up in mah bidness!! But now my home consists of me, my Steven, & Tonka the cat. I catch myself wondering where everyone is at sometimes… Last weekend, I made a quick trip home & nine of us all went out to eat at Johnnie’s Charbroiler. NINE PEOPLE! & it did my heart a world of good. 🙂

Because I’m an overachiever, here’s a sixth fact- I’m the only person in my family who sews. & if I ever try to talk shop about my quilts, they act like I’m reading verbatim from a set of stereo instructions. Oh, the yawns… This is part of the reason why I love my local guild! They not only appreciate the aesthetics of what make, they want to know about the process behind it & actually understand what I’m saying! QuiltCon is going to be so
much fun, if I can get over my terrible shyness! So, if you see me & recognize who I am, please say hello! I’d love
to hear from you. & I might even have some swag to give you from my magical QuiltCon Tote Bag O’ Mysteries!!! Woot! I’ll post a photo of it next week so you’ll recognize me! See ya then! I’ll be posting about everything on Instagram @rebsrecca!

I’ve been sewing for the past few weeks on all sorts of random things, so I thought I’d share a bit. This onesie is TOTALLY out of my comfort zone. C’mon- garment sewing??! My sister-in-law asked me to make it for her brother’s daughter, who is set to be born in the next few weeks. His favorite video game was Halo, so she wanted to incorporate that into something a little girl would wear. Anyways, I hacked apart a Garanimals onesie to see how it was put together & then cobbled together all kinds of different parts to make this garment. All it lacks now are snaps & then I need to make a matching hat or headband and some shoes. My embroidery could be MUCH better, but hopefully she won’t be too upset about it. I didn’t want to use the preset fonts in my sewing machine, so I designed it on the PC and then thread painted the words. It’s not a smooth satin stitch & that’s my one regret… Here’s the back:

It’s three rows of tulle ruffles, which are adorable! I could sit here and fluff them for hours.

Then next up was my entry for the Modern Quilt Guild’s Madrona Road Challenge:

It’s only about two feet high, so it didn’t take long. It’s my first finish of 2013, so that’s something!

I’ve got several other projects sitting in the wings. A Valentine’s quilt. Another Madrona Road mini quilt in the citrus colorway. A tote bag! Oh, the tote bag. It’s going to be so awesome, I can’t stand it! There aren’t enough hours in the day… Well, thanks for reading! & I’ll try to post more leading up to QuiltCon! rebecca

So, the deadline for QuiltCon has come and gone… I only had three entries ready to go, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. I’ll share some of my fails wit ya!

First, I made a fabric panel at Spoonflower & it was glorious. The key word being “was”. I started working on a corner and thoroughly messed up a large seam. When I went to rip it apart & rubbed the color off the fabric. Oh crap. I thought, “I can just order some more of this section of the panel!” But for whatever reason, I couldn’t get that particular portion of the design into the fat quarter preview on Spoonflower. I tried all the repeat options & nothing worked… I couldn’t afford to buy the entire two yard panel, so I decided to abandon ship for now. Here it is in its current state:

The second fail was due to fabric, as well. I ordered four yards for my background from a company in New Jersey & well,well, well- Hello, hurricane Sandy!! It wasn’t able to be shipped for over two weeks. When it got here, I opened the box & it was not at all what I ordered!! It was supposed to be a heathered gray, but I got a pale lilac solid. Talk about disappointed. I actually cried over fabric! & I am still working with their customer service department to this day trying to get a solution!! Argh. So, I went shopping all over for a similar fabric, but I just couldn’t find it. The heart wants what it wants, you know? So, that quilt was doomed.

Third was a giant appliqué quilt that never made it past the pattern stage. I think when I saw the sheer scale of the undertaking, I got spooked. Here’s the full sized patterns I got from my printer, good ol’ Miller Blueprint:

In the end, though, I entered two old quilts & my new reverse appliqué miniature. I’m pretty happy about it, too, because I felt like I had a productive November.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!! Bring on Christmas! 🙂 I’m going to go hang lights on my house now. In 80 degree weather… r

The Austin Modern Quilt Guild is going to swap pincushions with several other chapters across the United States and Canada, so I decided to contribute two of my Zelma cuff pincushions! Since I didn’t have any of the restrictions that I had at Moda Bakeshop, I played around with materials. The turquoise is made from fabric I had printed. The strap is made of suede with silver Jones Tones foil over top & I am so happy about how it came out!! But it’s always tough trying to get your sewing machine used to a different material than it’s used to handling & I lost steam battling with Rory. So, the second cuff doesn’t have a felt lining because I couldn’t make myself sew one on it. 😦

I think they turned out very pretty & I’m going to be sad to see them go…

Hello! My Steven & I bought a new house (Yay!), so all of my sewing supplies are currently living sad little lives inside cardboard boxes. In the interim, I am sitting here at my computer procrastinating because I DO NOT want to pack up yet another load of boxes in this sweltering Texas heat. I was hoping that once the sun went down, the weather would be much more reasonable, but no. It’s after 7pm and still feels like 102 degrees! So, whatevs, I’m going to put up this quick tutorial for my bolt quilt. It’s more like a layout, tbh. Here you go:

The blocks are made of solid strips of fabric and half-square rectangles. There’s an excellent tutorial here for HRT’s from the Modern Quilt Guild’s 100 Days of Quilts! The tall HRT’s in bolt started their lives as 8.5″ long x 2.5″ wide strips and finished at 5.75″ x 2″. The shorter ones were 4.5″ long and 2.5″ wide and finished at 3.25″x2″. The solid strips were 5.75″ x 2″. Feel free to experiment with sizes on your project. Just make sure your triangle points end up a quarter inch away from the edge or the quilt police will get you…

Tips? I’d say you could press all your seams open to make it easy on yourself. Did I do that? Um, no. I pressed them all to the background. Then all the blocks in column one were pressed down and all the blocks in column two were pressed up and so on and so forth. That way, each row nestled in with one another. Secondly, pin like a beast! And then pin some more! A graphic pattern like this relies on precision piecing, so take your time and line EVERYTHING up. The tops of the lightning bolts should be perfectly straight across… Here’s bolt one more time:

It actually goes together quite quickly once you’ve figured out what color goes where. I hope y’all try this quilt out. Or at least make a pillow or something with it! Have a good night! I have storage totes calling out to me! rebecca